Altered Book - Fairies

This was originally a book on fairies; I used existing pictures & text and pictures from another fairy book I had. I finished this in Sept 2005.

For the cover, I used floral cutouts from the book & picked purple paper to complement the tone of the flowers and also to cover the questionable shade of green!

Inside front cover: covered the torn edge of the purple paper with beads; placed glitter & silver beads on cut-out of web to resemble dewdrops; slipped fairy cut-out in vellum envelope.

This was a fun layout to do. I covered both pages with leaf-like paper to give the feeling of being in a dense forest. Before adhering the paper on the right-hand side, I ripped it down the middle & only glued the straight edges onto the page. I used the adorable image of the fairy-child to draw attention to the fact that the 'leaves' could be parted, opening up to reveal 'The Enchanted Forest' (by Sir John Gilbert).

The painting on the left is entitled 'Spirit of the Night' (by John Grimshaw) and the one on the right, coincidentally, is called 'Spirit of the Sun' (unfortunately didn't make a note of the artist) -- how pleased was I?! Can't remember where I got the star-covered ribbon from but it works perfectly.

I worked around the original page layout as I absolutely adore this painting by Frank Dicksee. I backed the smaller picture of 'Lamia' (JW Waterhouse) with rose paper, adhered a printout describing the inevitable tragedy of love between mortal and fairy and glued on a fabric rose for the 'handle'. I then attached the picture to the edge of the page using clear tape.

This is the final layout. I was desperate to use this gorgeous fabric I'd bought! The painting on the left is 'The Lily Fairy' (Luis Ricardo Falero), I felt the page didn't really need anything more than the butterfly & the 'believe' tag. I attached the circular floral tag to the fabric for it to be lifted to reveal the painting.

I cut a niche on the right-hand side after making a page block & cut partway around the cloth for it to reveal only the niche, & glued the rest of the fabric to the page. I attached a circular butterfly tag to the bottom of the cut fabric to lift it up. The niche is filled with transparent, plastic-like flowers & jewels, threaded beads draped around a piece of thick glass, more beads, a 'wish' tag, feathers & a crystal-like pebble.

I really, really enjoyed making this altered book. I find I speed along with great enthusiasm until I realise I'm not far off finishing, then I slow right down... not easy as the enthusiasm hasn't diminished one bit!!